Alltel handsets get City ID for $1.99 monthly
One of my favorite iPhone features is the ability to see what city a caller is from, even if the Caller ID can’t resolve the actual callers phone number. I don’t know if this feature is specific to the iPhone or if it works on all AT&T handsets. In any case, it is now available on LG, Samsung and Motorola handsets for the Alltel Wireless network. Their press release (not on their site at time of writing) indicates that they’re the “first carrier to offer the enhanced Caller ID feature”, but my iPhone begs to differ. Maybe they mean they’re the first to charge extra for it: it’s a free 15-day trial and then costs $1.99 a month after that. As much I like it, I don’t think I’d pay for it if I had to.In fairness, I suspect there’s a slight difference in the Alltel implementation. On my iPhone, I can only see the City ID information in the recent call list, meaning I can’t see where the call originated while receiving the call. From the sound of the e-mail I received from Alltel, you should be able to see the city and state of the caller as the call comes in.
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Really? Your iPhone doesn’t show it when the call is incoming? What good is that? What was Stevo thinking!?
For what it’s worth, my PalmOS Sprint Treo 700p has that feature out of the box. I am truly shocked now that it’s not available on the iPhone, and I’ll have to go hassle my iPhone-toting co-workers about it :)
Oliver, the iPhone does show the caller name and number when the call comes in. However, if that info is unknown or restricted, it won’t provide the info. When I go back to my recent call log, I see the city and state of those numbers.
This kind of feature is really nice to have – my samsung phones on sprint all had this feature – you get a call and it will show either the city/state or the state (depending on the phone model) the call is from; but only on calls where the caller ID was there (so it didn’t work with people who blocked their caller ID).
If I remember correctly, the feature works by keeping a database of the area codes and first three digits of all US phone numbers – like 915-718-xxxx, and since both the area codes and the first three digits are assigned geographically the phone can match it up and show where that call is likely from.
RMathew, do you recall if the function costs anything on the Sprint network? Just curious.